Organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display devices have come to gather attention in recent years as display devices that are thin, lightweight, and capable of high-speed response. Organic EL display devices have multiple pixels arrayed two-dimensionally. A typical pixel in an organic EL display device includes one organic EL element and one drive transistor. An organic EL element is a light-emitting element that emits light of a luminance corresponding to the amount of current passing through it. The drive transistor is provided serially with the organic EL element, and controls the amount of current flowing to the organic EL element.
Separately, there are conventionally known display devices according to a field-sequential color system. Field-sequential color system display devices display color by displaying multiple subframes in one frame interval. A liquid crystal display device that switches the light-emission color of the backlight among red, green, and blue, each subframe interval, displaying three subframes (subframes corresponding to red, green, and blue), in one frame interval, is a known field-sequential color system display device.
PTL 1 through 3 describe field-sequential color system organic EL display devices. A display device described in PTL 1, for example, displays three subframes in one frame interval. FIG. 36 is a circuit diagram of a pixel matrix of the display device described in FIG. 9 of PTL 1. Each pixel includes an organic EL element OLEDr that emits red light, an organic EL element OLEDg that emits green light, and an organic EL element OLEDb that emits blue light. Light-emission signal lines E1r, E2r, and E3r are selected in a first subframe interval, light-emission signal lines E1g, E2g, and E3g are selected in a second subframe interval, and light-emission signal lines E1b, E2b, and E3b are selected in a third subframe interval. Accordingly, the (3×3) pixels illustrated in FIG. 36 are assigned the colors illustrated in FIG. 37 for the first through third subframes. The amount of circuits and layout footprint can be reduced with field-sequential color system organic EL display devices, by controlling the luminance of multiple field organic EL elements by a single drive transistor.